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Integrating AI into regular classroom curricula is no easy task. With the technology still in its emergent phase, teachers who are interested in these solutions may also find it difficult to gather definitive best practices. According to a 2018 Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) report, it’s important to consider the culture and technical readiness of your school before bringing in robotic teaching assistants. “Small and mid-sized districts tend to be the most facile and can move forward quicker,” says Alex Kaplan, global sales leader of IBM Watson Education. “A basic technology infrastructure including a student information system, assessment data, digital instructional resources and bandwidth to schools, is essential.”

The courage to make mistakes is related in some measure to curiosity, exploration, and the ability to speak honestly about a topic and about ourselves.

We are born curious—so what happened?

That is, demonstrating our own curiosity and inspiring and cultivating the natural curiosity in others.

Right away, certain patterns emerged. First, great teachers tended to set big goals for their students. They were also perpetually looking for ways to improve their effectiveness. For example, when Farr called up teachers who were making remarkable gains and asked to visit their classrooms, he noticed he’d get a similar response from all of them: “They’d say, ‘You’re welcome to come, but I have to warn you—I am in the middle of just blowing up my classroom structure and changing my reading workshop because I think it’s not working as well as it could.’ When you hear that over and over, and you don’t hear that from other teachers, you start to form a hypothesis.” Great teachers, he concluded, constantly reevaluate what they are doing. Superstar teachers had four other tendencies in common: they avidly recruited students and their families into the process; they maintained focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student learning; they planned exhaustively and purposefully—for the next day or the year ahead—by working backward from the desired outcome; and they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls. But when Farr took his findings to teachers, they wanted more. “They’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah. Give me the concrete actions. What does this mean for a lesson plan?’” So Farr and his colleagues made lists of specific teacher actions that fell under the high-level principles they had identified. For example, one way that great teachers ensure that kids are learning is to frequently check for understanding: Are the kids—all of the kids—following what you are saying? Asking “Does anyone have any questions?” does not work, and it’s a classic rookie mistake. Students are not always the best judges of their own learning. They might understand a line read aloud from a Shakespeare play, but have no idea what happened in the last act.

What is in the window is a sign that makes clear the “design principles” of the school, written from the perspective of student expectations.  There are ten statements, printed on a transparent piece of plexiglas, which in itself sends a message. Here they are: I make choices that help me learn and do my best work. I am aware of the needs of others and do great things for them. I learn about myself and all that I can do by trying new things. I think of new ideas and share them with others. I think about people’s feelings and help take care of others. I learn from my mistakes and build on the things that I do well. I work with others to learn and complete a task.  I push myself to do my personal best and keep improving. I learn about and respect different people and include everyone. I care for and learn from nature. I take time by myself to think about what I have learned.

But to Mr. Khan, occasional mistakes are part of his method. By watching him stumble through a problem, students see the process better, he argues. Sometimes they correct him in comments on his YouTube videos, and he says this makes students more engaged with the material.